Lost and Found
by thisisgloria2.0
Summary: What if Steven did get back to Lapis on the ship? What if they did escape together? This is the story of how Lapis escapes with the crystal gems and explores her new life of freedom. Lapis x Oc plus some other pairings.
1. Trapped

**Takes place during the end of season 1,only this time Steven makes it back to Lapis. Do they make it out in time? Will Lapis end up living with the gems? Will this be a generic story we've read a thousand times? (although we all know we love em) Yes. Yes. And hopefully not. Expect some twists and turns as our favorite water Gem explores her new freedom. Lapis x Oc some other pairings too. Rated M just because possible future chapters.**

 **The first chapter and part of the second will replay some of the actual episodes but rest assure, aside from these chapters the remaining story will be 100% original! 80% at the very least. 3**

Upon opening her eyes, Lapis Lazuli found she sat on the ground of her jail cell. Unable and unwilling to escape due to the force field and the lack of a home to escape to. No family to go to. She was alone. What was worst about all of this was that she was once again a prisoner. Just when the blue gem had a glimpse of what it was like to be free again, she's thrown back into containment by her own kind.

' _Speak of the devils_.' Lapis thought, as her captors neared her. She continued to sulk not looking up from the ground, listening to the two gems bicker over unneeded escorting and Stevens. ' _Stevens. Steven! What have I done? This is all my fault..._ ' Steven was a good kid. He saved Lapis from the mirror. He healed her gem. The boy didn't deserve what was coming to them.

The navigator and the guard's foot steps could be heard clanking and stomping closer and closer to the prisoner and stop in front of the cell. Four of the green one's fingers detach, or perhaps they never were attached in the first place, and form into loose square to project a panel showing various codes and symbols. After a few touches with the remaining fifth 'finger', the yellow wall separating Lapis from the two vanishes and a large meaty fist is wrapped around Lapis's bicep. Pulling the smaller one down the long curved hallway of the space craft until the trio reach an open room with nothing but a circle on the floor in the center, to which the three proceed to stand inside of.

"Open the door already! The faster we finish this pointless mission, the faster I get back to real work back on homeworld." the stronger of the three ordered.

The half robotic one expressed an annoyed look and pulled up the floating panel once again. "Don't you think I'm doing that? And I'm telling you, there's something weird about these gems. I wouldn't request for an escort if I didn't think it was necessary. Just you wait and see I was right all along."

After a few more taps and a slide across the holographic tablet, the floor underneath them begins to form around them. Sliding up from the floor and connecting from all sides above them forming a giant bubble. The bubble easily levitates all of them up and through the ceiling and to the outside of the ship. It rolls to the tip of the ship's finger, keeping the passengers inside balanced and unharmed by the movement. The transporter stops once arrived, cracks open from the top and unfolds into itself. It disappears releasing the occupants onto the ships forefinger which lowers them down to the beach shore.

Peridot was the first to approach the edge, "That's them alright. They're the one's who keep breaking my machines!" she turns around pointing towards the ground in front of them.

The escort calmly walks to where the green gem is and looks at the 'threat'. She scoffs, "Pfft. This is it?"

Slightly offended by the ignorant remark, "Jasper! They keep interfering with my work!" she says stubbornly. Eliciting a sigh from the brute who is now scowling down at the group below them.

"Looks like another waste of my time." she turns to grab hold of Lapis, who has up until now not moved from where the bubble had left them, and pulls her up next to her. "Hey, get over here."

Lapis yanks her arm out of Jasper's grip, glaring at her with challenging eyes. Her eyes are steered toward the beach and spots Steven. He sees her and she knows she has betrayed the closest thing she has to a 'friend'.

Jasper points to the temple, "This is their base?"

Lapis replied with a simple hushed, "Yes." Eyes now cast down to no where in particular. Just anywhere that wasn't the boys face, too ashamed to meet his gaze.

Down on the shore in front of the giant hand, everyone was in shock of the new sight and new strangers. Garnet was the first to take action causing the others to snap out of the fear induced trance. "You need to leave immediately!" she says loud yet steady.

Amethyst jumps in, "Yeah! Step off!"

Pearl tries to steer the intruders away with a quick and weary, "This is not a gem controlled planet!" fear clearly coating her voice.

The crystal gems all stood in their own battle stances wearing their weapons in the case of an attack. The intruders jump from the ship onto the wet sand in front of the others.

The bulky gem begins, "Neither of you saw Rose Quartz?" she says speaking to both Peridot and Lapis. "Oh, what a shame." a sarcastic remark. "I hoped to meet her. I was looking forward to beating her into the ground!" the last part made Steven uneasy. "But this is all that is left of her army." She looks to Pearl, "A lost defective pearl," to Amethyst, "a puny over cooked runt," Garnet "and this shameless display?" and finally landing on the human boy, or so she thought. "hmm..What is that?" Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all tense and get a little closer in front of him.

Peridot answers the question right after. "It calls itself 'Steven'."

"He's just a human!" Lapis shouts, "He's not a threat at all. H-he's not one of them."

Jasper blows off the explanation, "I know what a human is. You don't need me for this." she turns back to the ship and waves back dismissively. "Just blast them with the ship."

"Fine." Obviously annoyed with the lack of concern, Peridot pulls up the control panel once again to enter more codes lifting the ship to have it pointing down at the team in front of them. Typing in a password and tracing a perfect circle on the screen and tapping the center activates the canon to charge up the attack. After a short moment of charging, the one in control of the ship speaks the magic words, "Fire it." releasing the blast directly at the four.

The perfectly aligned shot makes contact. But from the sound of the impact it didn't sound successful. It wasn't the sound of poofing or shattering from broken gems. There were no screams. There was no broken piece of land anywhere around the beach. The low gong of the shot being stopped was the only sound to be heard.

That's when Jasper glanced behind herself to be faced with the symbol shes so familiar with. "You. You have the power of Rose Quartz!"

Taking the opportunity to be right, Peridot looks to Jasper, "Now do you believe I needed an escort?!"

Said escort commanded, "Fire a barrage! Widespread!"

The small gem swiped a barely straight line across her personal tablet causing a stream of energy to flow out of the canon and crash into the beach, splitting up the small group. Steven went diving forward toward the invaders. Jasper walks up to him followed by Lapis. "Rose, why do you look like that? Why are you so weak?"

Lapis catches up to the two shortly after. "Don't hurt him!" she asks more than tells the large woman.

"You knew about this!" 

"It wasn't relevant to the mission."

"Forget about the mission!"

This catches a certain space dorito's attention. "What?!"

"Yellow Diamond needs to see this...thing."

Suddenly from behind the subject of the conversation comes a wave of water and sand as Garnet jumps up and dashes in front of the small boy to initiate a head on fight. That is until she is was hit with the destabilizer. Not only was the fusion undone, but both halves had to retreat back into their own gems. The sheer look of disbelief plastered on Steven's face never left as the other continued speaking. Pointing out the loss of their temple. Mentioning his mother as though she was right in front of her. As if he was her. And in the blink of an eye, Steven was unconscious due to a fierce headbutt.

Pearl and Amethyst we're already rushing for the two and having their attention at an unconscious Steven, they forgot about the technical gem who quickly swiped the purple gem with her own destabilizing wand leaving the tall and thin one to be the last of her team standing. That is until she looked back at her friend's defeat leaving her wide open for an attack that hit its mark.

"These are the ancient 'Crystal Gems'? Ha! That was almost too easy. Lock them up and we'll head back to Yellow Diamond. I'm tired of this primitive rock already."

Following directions, Peridot once again used her pad to bubble each gem sending them directly to each of their containment centers.

Lapis on the other hand was less than compliant and stood glued to the sand until dragged forcefully to the ship all the way back to her holding cell and thrown inside like a rag.

She felt the ship begin to take off again. The slight rattling of leaving the atmosphere did little to sooth the blue girl. She didn't have windows near by but she new they were already well away from the Earth again. And soon they would be back at homeworld. The new modern homeworld. Everything is so different. The technology, the culture, it's as if its a different world all together.

Feeling the weight of her betrayal and helplessness settle down on her, Lapis Lazuli sat in the middle of her cell curled up in a ball with her head tucked into her knees wishing she could disappear. But she knew better than that. Homeworld wouldn't let her go when they returned. All she could do was be compliant and hope this 'Yellow Diamond' will go easy on her.

 **There you have it, chapter 1! I haven't written any stories in a few years so I hope this wasn't too bad. You all can expect at least 1 new chapter a week although I'll aim to update twice a week if I have the time. Let me know what you guys think, suggestions, comments, concerns are all welcome~**


	2. Rescued

**First off, thank you to everyone who favorited and followed the story. That was a huge boost for my motivation to write tonight! Secondly, here's the story.**

There she was in that damned cell again curled up in a ball with her head buried in her knees. It had been almost fifteen minutes since the ship had left earth with five new 'guests' and Lapis knew they already made some distance away from the primitive planet.

' _What's going to happen when we get to homeworld? Yellow Diamond doesn't sound like a lenient boss. There's no doubt the crystal gems will get the punishment they deserve but Steven...he's hardly a part of anything. He's too kind and innocent to be one of them. Why does he stay with those traitors? Doesn't he know they'll jus-_ ' she's shaken from her thoughts when suddenly the ship shakes for just a moment as if heavy cargo was dropped and the impact could be felt through the floor.

Lapis looks up from her knees to peek around her wall the best she could without moving from her spot. When nothing could be seen, she turned around to face a solid wall of her jail. If she was to be dragged off again, she'd rather ignore it for as long as she can.

When nothing happened and no one came by, the blue girl lied down on her side with her hands tucked into her chest and her knees still bent close. Many thoughts were running through the poor gems head, all falling back to a way to leave this mess. Planning multiple routes and possible outcomes with all of them ending in failure. Eventually giving up on her schemes, she sits herself back up in order to clear her head a bit and rethink.

Disobeying more than she already has wouldn't exactly be the best idea. ' _I did lead us to Earth and to the temple so I'm sure I'll be let off...right? Who am I kidding, I'm doomed no matter where I go. And now I've dragged my only friend down with me._ '

Foot steps could be heard from down the corridor and Lapis knew this time it was coming towards her. ' _Ignore it Lapis. Relax. As long as you do what they say, they wont hurt you anymore. You'll be that much closer to getting out._ ' she gave herself a quick pep talk. Then the pitter patter of racing foot steps halted to a stop. But who she hears isn't what she was expecting.

"Oh, it's just you." the voice is a mixture of disappointment and bitter frustration. Lapis is unaffected by this and continues to sulk. That is until she hears the other company.

"Lapis!" the gem turns around to see a small red gem with a head band tightly secured around bulbous hair, they had a simple choice of clothing and looked at her with hateful eyes. But that's not what Lapis was concerned about right now. Steven had found her. He had escaped his prison. He raises his hands to the force field separating them, "Lapis I can get you out!"

"Stop!" Lapis yells before the boy can lay his hands down.

"It's okay, I can-"

"No! I don't want your help. Things are bad enough as it is. I've already made too much trouble. Once we get back to homeworld, they're going to decide what to do with us." she wraps her arms around herself and peers down to the floor beside her. Too ashamed of herself to even keep eye contact with the half human.

The red gem, almost forgotten about, growls in frustration with her hands on her head. "I don't have time for this!" And just like that she's gone off running away from the two. Steven calls out for her to wait but the small gem is already gone and wont turn around anytime soon. She had an obvious mission set in mind and whatever it was, Lapis knew Steven was trying to help. That's just how the boy was. Always helping however he can.

Lapis looked to him with pleading eyes. "Steven, whatever you're doing just stop. If we do everything they say, they might go easy on us."

"But they're.." he pauses looking for an appropriate word to use, "..mean! They hurt my friends, they hurt my face! They've got you here in prison."

"That's why we can't fight them." the girl's hope is vanishing from her voice. That is if there was any left.

Steven's hope was still very much alive though. "That's why we have to fight them!" the remaining gem realized there was no use trying to convince her friend to surrender and endure their fate. She simply turned in her spot so she didn't have to face him anymore, no longer speaking anymore. Steven speaks once more, "I'll come back for you." and then he leaves in the same direction as his companion did.

And just like that she was alone. Again. A part of the blue gem wanted Steven to save her from this hell. A part of her wanted to fight against the gems that put her in here. A part of her wanted to get revenge on the gems that held her captive for thousands of years, knowing she was in the mirror. All of her was paralyzed from confusion. In all actuality she didn't know what she wanted.

She _needed_ to be saved. She needed _someone_ to fight for her. She needed piece of mind and closure. And Lapis Lazuli knew who that someone was that can do all these things and more. The only problem was-

Suddenly the ship is shaken. Somewhat similar to how it did earlier, only this time stronger as if the space craft had made contact with something. ' _We couldn't have made it back to homeworld yet. It took us weeks to make the trip to Earth...perhaps we hit an asteroid or got caught in a-_ ', more shaking made her lose her train of thought.

Lapis can hear it now. Whatever that angry looking gem and her friend were planning to do, it's probably in motion. The sound of metal crunching and snapping can be heard in the distance. Surely the cause of it being a battle of sorts.

' _I hope Steven is okay..._ ', she thought. That's all she can do right now. That's all she's ever done since she was originally captured.

The sudden shocks of shaking changed to a constant rumble of turbulence. ' _This is it. We're crashing. Everything I've been through, everything I've done. All worth nothing and I inadvertently dragged everyone with me. I'm sorry Steven. I never meant to hurt you and your planet._ ' She took one last look at the sorry space she sat in then buried her head in her knees once more.

"Lapis!" Said gem looked up to the voice and couldn't believe her eyes.

"Steven! You shouldn't be here!" The miracle boy was running straight to her cell.

"Lapis we need to get you out of here, the ship is going down we need to hurry!" He was already reaching through the force field.

"Save yourself Ste-"

"NO!" Before Lapis could get another word in, he already bubbled them inside a shield.

Not long after, impact was made. And even shorter after that, was an explosion. The hand shape it once was, now mangled and broken into fragments scattered along the shore. Blue flames engulfing what wasn't complete waste yet.

A pink beast made its way to the shore and scouted the area in search of his master. Approaching piles of debris then turning to a new until he had found who he had been searching for.

Releasing a sonic roar, the lion cleared a small amount of rubble revealing a small boy and a thin girl still encased in a transparent pink bubble. The shield dissipated after the weight had been relieved from the pair.

Steven was the first to react. "Lion! We have to find the others." He turned to his friend. "I'll be back Lapis, we'll get through this together. The gems will know what to do." The lion kneels down for his master to mount him, then they're off.

Taking the opportunity to escape, Lapis jumps into the air and summons her water wings and starts to fly away. To where, she doesn't know. As long as it's not here, not around these monsters, she didn't care.

A good distance in the air she spots pink fur and curly hair. She debated saying goodbye but decided against it for he would only try to stop her. Liquid wings turn her around to leave, but she is once again stopped by a flash of pink. A closer look shows what seems to be limbs wrapped around figures beneath the pink object. Or rather, within the pink object. The missing team mates had been found.

After a second thought, Lapis once again changed direction of her flight and dove down to the pile covering her target. Lifting and tossing large sheets of rock and metal and whatever the modern technology was made from cleared the bubble shield to reveal the crystal gems.

Lapis stared at them. They stared back. Only their gazes held confusion, concern, and fright. Verses the blank stare they received from deep blue eyes. No one spoke a word. That is until the link holding them all together showed up.

"Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl! You're safe! Lapis you found them!" The bubble vanishes and the boy dashes into the arms of his family who gratefully embraced him. They took a moment to soak in the reality of what could have happened while they were separated. "I can't believe my bubble lasted without me for so long!"

"That just goes to show how strong you are little man." Amethyst says while ruffling the 'little man's' hair.

Pearl steps in with concern dreading her features. "Steven listen to me, don't ever do that again. You could have gotten hurt without us there to protect you."

"Pearl. Steven clearly proved he took care of himself just fine while away from us." Garnet places her hand on his shoulder. She continues just as he goes to say something, "But you're still getting grounded for scaring us like that."

"Awe man..."

The tallest gem stands up and walks calmly over to Lapis. Her face is stoic and solid, her signature glasses not doing much to lighten the gaze. "Thank you Lapis Lazuli."

"W-what?" ' _Well that's not what I was expecting to hear. Like ever._ '

"Thank you for finding us. I'm not sure how long Steven's shield would have held strong. Without you, we might have been crushed under the weight of all that debris." Garnet extends her right hand and waits for the gesture to be returned, which eventually is after a few seconds.

It's awkward and there's a lack of eye contact. Words are a thing of the past as everyone becomes speechless from the unspoken truce between the two. She didn't know why, nor was she going too pry. But Lapis had came to their rescue. And that's what really mattered to the fusion. Maybe the good Steven saw in the gem before her wasn't just an illusion made up from unconditional kindness.

As if on queue, scrap pieces of ship begin to stir many feet away from the group. What emerges from it is none other than Jasper. Busting herself out of the pile like a caged gorilla gone mad.

Lapis's eyes widen. Her feet are planted to the ground. Her wings retreat back into her gem. Mouth open slightly with a slacked jaw. Eyebrows knitted together in fear. ' _No...no she's still here. She didn't go down with the ship._ ' Then her expression changed to one of angry and vengeance. "You!"

Jasper looks to Lapis with hateful eyes. "Me? Ha! Don't act like you're a threat to anyone! You're just a 'has been' that never made it. Now step aside." The cocky gem stomped her way over to the fusion. But before she can get halfway to her, she's stopped by something wrapping around her ankles.

A better look shows her the intrusion are vines. Water vines to be specific. Only for a moment though, then they shape shift into chains and cuffs that lock onto her. In the midst of her sudden capture, she neglects to notice two more water vines seep from the ocean and latch onto her wrists and also turn into shackles.

"What is this?! What's going on?!" Panic starts to set in.

"You wont take me prisoner again." Shackles tighten around wrists and ankles. "You wont hurt me anymore." Arms and legs are slowly pulled in opposite directions. "You wont use me to hurt my friend any longer." Limbs are pulled tight. Jasper's face contorted into one of confusion, to fear, to silent pleading all in a matter of seconds. "I wont let you!" The limit was reached as the chains pulled as far as the gems physical form would allow and then further causing it to poof back into the little orange diamond shaped gem.

Silence. No one dared to make a sound. The only noise that could be heard was the splashing of waves hitting the shore then receding back into the ocean. No one moved. Not until a light tune interrupted the moment. A few seconds later, the melody stopped and the only human present spoke into the loud device. "Uh..hello?"

The fusion gem approached the poofed gem and quickly bubbled it and sent it away to an unknown place. "Wow. She should have considered a different profession."

 **Hello and thanks for joining me again for the second chapter! Sorry to make you guys wait until the end of the week for this one. Things got busy here with the holiday, but I assure you the next chapter will be up soon. Not gonna lie, copying the dialog from episodes is not something I consider fun. More like annoying. Anyways! Until next time my valued readers!~**


	3. Clean Up

**Welcome back valued readers! Thanks again for everyone who followed and favorited the story. A special thanks goes out to spiderwilliam13 who gave me my first review, and yea I was just trying to work with what the show gave me ^-^'' Here comes the real story now!**

"So...now what?" Amethyst asks.

Garnet turns to her and adjusts her glasses. "Now.." her head pivots to the left. And then to the right. "..we clean up."

Pearl snaps out of her trance and her eyes widen in excitement at the word 'clean'. But then her features quickly change to a more serious look. "But Garnet, what about...our uhm, guest?" a forced cough and eyes darted towards a certain blue gem didn't go unnoticed by the darker one of the two. Nor did it pass the eyes of said 'guest'.

The leader of the team looks to Lapis and says, "She can help." as if it was obvious.

Lapis makes a face that can only be read as 'Are you for real?' and she was about to ask just that (well maybe not in that fashion) until Pearl beat her to it.

"Honestly Garnet, do you really believe-" she stopped herself from continuing that sentence, sensing the harsh glare she was receiving from behind glasses. Pearl broke eye contact and focused her attention on some seagulls that happened to fly by. "I mean, I'm sure an extra set of hands will help greatly."

Uncontrollable laughter was spewing out of Amethyst having noticed the pale girl's attitude adjustment. "Oh ho! Pearl got in trouble! Haha! Hey P, try to be nice to our new pal here would ya?"

Pearls cheeks gained a light shade of blue from the teasing. Which in turn made the laughter become harder, and that only made the blush deepen. It was a vicious cycle that resulted in an entirely blue faced pearl and a purple mess lying on the floor clutching her stomach from pain.

Garnet left the scene not long after the first giggle and already had a small fraction of the beach clear of debris. Lapis was still watching the two, trying to figure out what was so funny. Steven on the other hand was miles away. Not literally of course, but his mind definitely was else where as he sat down starring at the communication device he held in his hand. It was playing a light happy tune, the same one from earlier. The song stopped moments after.

Curiosity won over Lapis, who walked over to the normally animated boy. She waited a moment for him to speak up but he remained silent. Deep blue eyes stared at him, then to the phone, then back at him trying to figure out what could possibly be wrong. What better way to find out than to ask?

She sat down on the sand next to him and crossed her legs. "What's wrong?"

Apparently Steven hadn't noticed his friend at all judging from the slight jump yelp he let out. "Oh Lapis, it's just you." He looks down to the phone in his hand. "It's just that...my best friend Connie called and she's really worried about me." He sighed and closed his eyes. Tears were starting to form in the corners of his eyes as he looked back to Lapis. "I don't want to be the reason she's upset, I just want to see her happy! These gems, from homeworld, they were looking for my mom and found me instead. What if next time they come looking for me and find Connie?"

Tears were now falling from brown eyes. He looked up to Lapis waiting for a reply. An answer. Anything that would assure him his worries would be settled. Instead he received another call from Connie that went unanswered. His friend took a few seconds to think of an appropriate response. She looked out to the ocean as she found her words.

"Steven. Sometimes people worry about those who they care about. They want what's best for them and want them to be happy, just like you want Connie to be happy. But at the same time you have to remember that everything you feel for Connie, she probably feels the same for you. Otherwise she wouldn't be concerned, don't you think so?"

Steven worked his little kid brain around what Lapis said and nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah that makes sense." He looked out to the water too letting this sink in a bit. "How can I make her stop worrying?"

"You can't."

"I can't?" Brown eyes turned back to look at blue.

"No. You can't." Blue eyes turned to return the look. What they saw was a sad boy on the verge of tears again. ' _Come on Lapis, turn this around. You're supposed to be making him feel better. Not making him even more depressed._ ' "But that doesn't mean she wont."

"Lapis I'm so confused, what are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is that...here think of it this way. You want this Connie person to be happy right?" He nods. "Why?"

"Because she's my friend and I care about her!"

"Exactly. And if you knew something bad happened to her while you weren't around you'd be worried right?" A hum of approval is heard. "Now imagine if you knew something happened, but you didn't know what it was or how bad or why it happened. You'd be completely in the dark about it. How would you feel?"

"I'd feel awful! And worried! And...and...helpless."

The cellular device rang for the fourth time. "Talk to her Steven. Let her know what's happened. Don't leave her in the dark. I promise you'll both feel better after."

His thumb hovers over the 'answer' key on the touch screen but it's never pressed. The tune stops. "How can you be so sure?"

' _I've been there too._ ' A different tone is heard and the both of them look to the phone. A banner across the screen shows a message from Connie.

 **"What's going on? Talk to me, are you okay?"**

"Because she's telling you what she wants to hear. All you have to do is open up."

For the fifth time since they defeated Jasper, Steven's ring tone is sounded. Steven stands up and so Lapis does as well. Then he throws himself into her and wraps his arms around her torso in a hug. At first, the blue gem didn't know what was happening. The only contact with other beings she's had in thousands of years was either violence or none at all. And Steven's spit on her back. That aside, the hug is returned and appreciated on both ends.

When the embrace was over, Steven said a quick thanks, sniffed away his tears and sad feelings, and ran off dialing his friend's number.

"That was pretty cool ya know." now it was time for Lapis to be startled, this time by the amethyst. "Helping Steven out with his little man problem."

"Oh uhm, thanks I guess."

Silence. It lasted only some seconds but it felt like minutes. Amethyst was the first to break it.

"Soo I'm Amethyst if you didn't catch it. I thought I should be the first to introduce myself since Garnet doesn't say much and Pearl is, well Pearl." The half assed joke didn't shake the quiet gem at all. "Look I'm just trying to be nice. If you're going to be staying here I figured we could at least be chill."

"What makes you think I'll be staying?" A glare was shot towards the Earth made gem.

Amethyst put her hand on her hip and brushed her hair out of her face. "Well it's not like there's many options for you out there." She points to the sky signaling to space.

"I wont be held prisoner anymore. Especially not by you crystal gems."

"Hey! I wasn't the one who put you in that mirror!"

"You weren't the one who let me out either!"

Once again silence filled the air and Amethyst wasn't sure if she wanted to break it this time. But she did anyway. "I'm sorry." Nothing in response. "I know it's not enough to fix the pain we caused you, but really I am. Sure I was made here on Earth, but I'm still a gem. I don't want to be your enemy Lapis."

"...Then why didn't you release me from the mirror?" Lapis finally faced the other gem.

The chubby girl looks down almost ashamed. "Because I was told not to. That you could have been dangerous. It was to protect everyone here."

"Everyone on Earth right?" Her voice was laced with anger. "Everyone with such a short meaningless life. How can such simple beings be worth more than your own kind?" fists were balled up at her sides.

"They're not worth more. We're all equal. All life is beautiful in it's own way if you let it grow at it's own pace. That's what Rose taught me and let me tell ya, she wasn't wrong."

Amethyst had her eyes focused on something behind Lapis. When the other turned around, she realized it wasn't something. It was someone. And her least favorite someone of the team. Pearl.

"Hey look, I really do mean it when I say I'm sorry for not saving you from the mirror. I really would like to be friends with you eventually though."

Lapis shot her a confused look. "Why?"

Purple eyes squinted shut as Amethyst let out a quick giggle. She walked up to the blue girl and wrapped an arm around her shoulders roughly but not violent in the slightest. "Steven likes you, so that has to mean something right? Come on, lets help clean up this junk. I don't feel like getting a lecture on 'teamwork' and 'responsibility' from Birdy over there."

They parted ways to pick up different areas of the beach. The crystal gem was right, she didn't have many options to choose from. Lapis was going to have to remain on Earth for a while. And at least here she has one friend. Maybe even two now with the purple one. Well...not quite yet. But at least they weren't on bad grounds.

Lapis thought to herself about what Amethyst said. ' _Steven likes them, so that has to mean something...right?_ '

 **And there you have it! Chapter 3 all done up and never proofread so I apologize for any lack of perfection. Any questions, comments, concerns, whatever are welcome. Until next time!~**


	4. Welcoming Party

The beach was finally cleaned up from the previous day's invasion, capture, and return. Garnet might have gotten a head start and Pearl definitely has a knack for tidying the disorderly. But with Amethyst's outstanding talent to laze around and get distracted, she wasn't making much progress. And since Steven was busy making amends with Connie he wasn't around to help either, not that the gems minded.

Thankfully, Lapis was actually doing her part to help out. With the help of her ability to manipulate water she was able to quickly locate and retrieve all the debris from the ocean in order to avoid any humans from stumbling into modern gem technology.

For the most part the destroyed hand ship remnants were either stored or disposed of depending on possible value and damage. Pearl suggested they attempt to understand the new technology in order to fight back or at the very least find a weakness to the armor like material.

Yes, the ship was contained. Now the question of what's going to happen to-

"Lapis!" almost as if on cue, Steven comes running over with a girl a little taller than he is trailing only a bit behind. "Hey...this is...Connie." he says in between breaths. He takes less than a moment to catch his breath and continues. "We talked and she didn't freak out and everything is good now! Thank you." He leaps onto the blue gem taking her into a hug.

Lapis is immediately taken back by this. But only slightly, she settles for a gentle pat on the boys back before he lets go. She still wasn't yet used to this much affection.

Connie approaches the two afterward with a polite smile set on her face. "So this is Lapis? It's a pleasure to meet you." A small tan hand was held out for said gem to grab.

Lapis accepted the gesture and shook hands with the girl in front of her. A light giggle escaped her lips. "It's nice to meet you too, I'm assuming you're Connie?"

"Yep! Steven told me all about how you were trapped in the magic mirror and how he healed your gem."

Lapis shifted a bit, "Is that so?" Any sign of happiness was wiped from her face and was replaced with anger and resentment. Her eyes darted to the ocean.

Both Connie and Steven felt the change in the air. They looked at Lapis, then to the crystal gems standing some feet behind them looking through left over ship scraps. Apparently the gems weren't too interested in their conversation. Connie approaches the water gem again.

"Excuse me, Lapis?"

"Yes?" A bit of attitude stuck to that one word. She held it back, but her distress couldn't be hidden very well.

The young girl thought about her next words carefully. "If you don't mind me asking...what are you going to do now?"

The question stumped her and all hatred filling her was lost. What _was_ she going to do? She had nothing. Not even a direction or motive to start in. The most she had right now was a healed gem that could take her anywhere, but what was the point now? Then there was Steven.

"Oh my gosh! Lapis you can stay with us!"

That caught the attention of the formerly occupied gems. Well..a particularly snippy gem's attention.

"Steven how could you even suggest such a thing?! She fought against us, lead Jasper and Peridot to the temple, and lets not forget she stole the OCEAN!" Pearl intervened.

"Pearl that's not fair! She's sorry about that. And she found you guys under all that rubble. It's not like she has anywhere to be." Big pleading eyes were silently begging for approval The slender gem stood strong for her reasons and wasn't fazed by the puppy dog eyes. "Please Pearl?" *puppy dog eyes intensify*

Someone cleared their throat rather loudly bringing attention to themselves. "I think it's a great idea." Garnet says as she adjusts her glasses slightly.

"Garnet you can't be serious..." her pale face and jaw went slack from sheer disbelief. And just as quickly, the same face regained composure to rebuttal. "But previous evidence shows-"

"Previous evidence..." The tallest of them took a few steps forward. "..shows that Lapis isn't the same gem from when we met her. I say we give her a second chance."

Yes the slender gem, as smart as she can be when dealing with tactics and technology, she needs to improve her 'people' skills. Unfortunately blurting out your protest in front of the very person you're talking about isn't the most polite thing to do. Especially if this person contributed to the beach clean up without obligation.

Pearl was sizzling with defeat. Her eye brows knit together. Eyes narrowed looking at nothing in particular. "Steven. Connie." She says between clenched teeth.

"Wha?"

"Yes ma'am!" The kids react right away almost at the same time.

"Would you mind showing around our new...guest?" The look portrayed on her face could be taken as either pain or disgust. Both assumptions wouldn't be too far off from what she was feeling.

Meanwhile, Amethyst was bursting with laughter again not at all trying to hold back. "Bhahaha! P stop you're killin' me with that face! Oh boy did Garnet tell ya ahaha!"

Speaking of Garnet. "You too Amethyst. Make sure those three stay out of trouble."

Purple lips opened to say something but instead just closed and ran up to the beach house.

Once they were alone and were sure no one was listening to them, Garnet spoke up. "Pearl." she jumped slightly. "Lapis Lazuli is an extremely powerful gem. Like you said, she stole the ocean."

"Yes that's why we need to be careful."

"That's why we should remain on good terms. She won't fight for homeworld if they return."

Pearl wasn't convinced just yet. "How can you know that?"

"There's only two other scenarios that could occur and that's only if we don't make amends with Lapis." The pale gem still looked as though she was the only one thinking clearly in this mad world. "Also, try to see this through her eyes."

An unwilling pearl took a minute to think back to the beginning. Lapis was already trapped in the mirror. It was a no brainer to figure out there was a gem being contained in the object but that didn't mean she was to be trusted. It was found in the Galaxy Warp during one of her recruitment missions. The war was only just beginning and the crystal gems still had allies across the galaxy. But anyone could pass through the warp stream, including the enemy. Lapis's gem was unfamiliar and that was reason enough to be considered a threat.

Light blue eyes closed as the stubborn gem tried to switch rolls around. ' _Let's see. I can't say much for how she ended up in the mirror, not by choice no doubt._ ' Another thought crossed her mind. ' _I'm not sure how long she was trapped in there either. On top of the time spent on Earth_ '.

Pearl sat and reflected on the past weeks since Lapis was released from the mirror. Flying from Earth back to Homeworld. Discovering how advanced everything developed. Being locked up and brought back to the simple planet. What she found from the short meditative period was a cloud of weakness, betrayal, sorrow, confusion, and utter absence. What she gathered was understanding and maybe a bit of disappointment in herself.

She stood up and dusted off any sand that may have been stuck to her orange shorts. The grumpy attitude now being replaced with a more calm one along with a small smile.

"Garnet, it's incredibly rude for us to not show company around."

 **Wow okay yes I am aware that I'm a total jerk. The past couple months have been busy to say the least. Luckily I prepared to return with a peace offering of three, that's right, three new chapters! Please forgive my foolish lifestyle *bows* Until next time!~**


	5. Tangles

Inside the beach house were currently three characters. The short boy with curly black hair had lead the small group up the stairs and into the place he called home. "Welp, here we are!" Steven opened his arms wide with a big smile wet on his face. He eagerly began walking around the small house as though it was a museum. "This is the kitchen, and dining room. It's like a two for one kinda deal. This is Amethyst's favorite I think. Other than her room. And over here is the couch! I don't think the gems will like you going in the temple so you can stay here if you feel like sleeping."

Steven continued leading his friends around his home. For each section, he would tell a little something extra about it. Sure Connie was already familiar with the rooms but she enjoyed the little details her friend would add to the tour. As for the new guest, she was having a bit of trouble paying attention to anything that came out of the boys mouth.

' _Am I really gonna let myself stay with the ones who kept me hostage? Sure they seem friendly now, well most of them do, but for how long will that last?_ ' Lapis looks around her. At her new 'bed'. At her new _home._ That word wasn't as comforting as she used to know. She really did try to pay attention to her friend during the tour but honestly, Lapis wasn't too sure if this whole 'living with the enemy' thing was going to last long.

"Hey guys what's going on?" Standing in the door way was Amethyst with a lopsided smirk.

"I'm showing Lapis around the house!"

"Showing her around? Steven...This house is one big room with different furniture in different places. There's not much to show." The purple girl wasn't wrong there. "Why not just sit her in the middle and spin her around? That way she can see everything in two seconds!"

Amethyst was now creeping over to Lapis. ' _She's not seriously thinking about spinning me is she?_ ' Lapis thinks to herself as she starts to back up a bit. Lavender hands get ready to pounce and move closer with each step taken. ' _She's totally serious!_ ' "Woah woah woah! I uh..already got a good look at the place! Yeah so no need for spinning okay? Okay great ah haha ha..."

Little white boots left the ground in an attempt to tackle the other gem. Luckily for said gem, the impact never happened. Upon closer inspection all could see a red gauntlet sitting on top of Amethyst's head. Which was now pressed into the wood floor. Firmly.

"Amethyst, I sent you up here to keep the peace. Not to bother Lapis and start trouble." Garnet retracts her gauntlets and they vanish into thin air. Without looking in any particular direction she says another word. "Pearl."

An immediate response is given. "Yes?" The leader simply clears her throat. "Oh right. Of course. Lapis Lazuli, I would like to apologize for my previous behavior." Garnet adjusts her glasses to pear a single eye over them. Obviously that wasn't satisfactory. "It was wrong of me to be so...close minded. You are welcome to stay with us for however long you wish to." This seemed to be a better statement the taller gem was waiting for. "But if you so give me a reason to remove you from this house hold, so help me I will not hesitate in the slightest." The last part sounded more like a threat with how serious Pearl's voice dropped.

A sigh escaped Garnet's lips along with a shake of her head. "Welcome aboard Lapis." And with that, Garnet dismissed herself and opened the temple door to one of her two rooms.

An eerie silence filled the room. Amends we're made. Kind of. The tour was interrupted, not that there was much left to show off. Now all that was left in the house was Steven, his human girl friend standing by his side, Pearl starring at the formerly known as 'threat' who was uncomfortably avoiding her gaze, and Amethyst who was still lying on the ground. Apparently the bonk to the head was enough to put her to sleep.

The silence quickly became so uncomfortable that it started to become something very loud. But as loud as it had become, the sound of a hungry tummy was heard clearly over it. All eyes (conscious eyes) were brought to Steven.

"Eheh, sorry I guess I'm a little hungry." He lifted up his shirt a little to show off his gem. His stomach growled again.

Connie lights up with an idea. "Oh I know! We can go into town and see if any of the shops are open yet!" She runs over to Lapis and starts to pull her to the door. Steven catches on quickly and goes to join his friend.

Lapis hits the breaks. "Wait, I'm not sure if-" She feels nubby hands push her from behind also.

"Come on Lapis! We're supposed to be beach summer fun buddies! Let's go have some fun and grab a snack." They're almost out the door when he turns around and says a goodbye to Pearl. "We'll be back soon, no need to worry, okay bye Pearl!" The door slams closed behind them, racing off to the boardwalk.

Pearl thought about tagging along to make sure everything would be okay but instead she decided to give the trio some space. Everything would be fine. Steven could use his shield if he really needed to. And there's no way he'd let harm come to Connie. Besides, Pearl had something else to attend to at the moment. Or rather, someone.

After settling her worried mind, Pearl walked over to Amethyst who hasn't moved since being pelted to the floor. "Amethyst." No response. "Amethyst wake up. You can't lie on the ground all day." She received a response this time. Sort of. A snore if that could count as one.

Both exhausted from the day and tired of putting up a fight, she chooses to sit next to her passed out friend. "If you're not going to wake up, can you at least stop your snoring?" To her surprise, the snoring did stop. Pale lips released a slight giggle in the irony. "You're not really asleep are you?" When nothing was spoken from the unconscious gem, well that was an answer all on its own.

For the time being, Pearl just sat next to her friend. She let out a sigh feeling the weight of her worries settle. ' _How can everyone be okay with this? Maybe Lapis Lazuli does wish to become civil but until we know for sure, someone should be keeping an eye on her. I have to trust Garnet with this decision. Surely she has seen the possible outcomes with her future vision. She knows what's best. Garnet always knows what to do._ '

She tried to find something to distract herself from the burdening thoughts. Her light blue eyes drifted to a mass of messy white hair. "When was the last time you brushed your hair?" At this point Pearl was just talking to herself, yet she continued to summon a brush from her oval gem and invited herself to brush the mess away. If only it were that simple.

The tangles and knots were too much for the brush to untangle and Pearl found herself unraveling each twist and loop by hand as to not damage the strands further. The brush was tossed aside and Pearl's thoughts and worries disappeared with a new mission taking place. She must have sat there for at least an hour delicately searching and untangling each knot. Her slim hands were still roaming through the full head of hair looking for any missed locks, but even that turned into gentle touches just to feel the soft tresses.

Pale hands ran through long hair, each strand sending tingling numbness through finger tips. There was no longer a mission to complete, that was already dealt with. This was pure relaxation. And Pearl wasn't the only one having a swell time.

Amethyst let out content sighs here and there while letting her scalp be massaged. No, she wasn't sleeping. At least not from the start. Amethyst was only pretending, not that that's much of a shock to anyone really. Sometimes she just liked to mess with people. Or just be lazy. It gave her a strange pleasure knowing she didn't _have_ to do anything. She often wonders why Pearl ever _wanted_ to do half the things she does. Chores, practice, cleaning. It was all so boring. Now when Pearl started taming her hair, that was a whole other story. To Amethyst, that was more than okay. A free head and neck massage? Plus her hair was no longer matted. And she didn't even have to do anything to get it! She just pretended to sleep! Okay so a few times Amethyst had dozed off due to the immense relaxation she was feeling. But other than that she was fully enjoying the attention.

"I really do like your hair." Pearl states fondly. "Even though you have no clue how to take proper care of it." And the fondness is gone.

"I didn't ask you to take care of it ya know." Amethyst speaks for the first time in over an hour. A personal record perhaps. Pearl retracts her hand and looks as though she's about to deny any and all tender feelings for why she tended to her hair. Amethyst can already see reason and excuses processing through her pal's mind. So she beats her to it with something the other hadn't expected. "But I can't really complain. So thanks...I guess."

A slight blush rises to pale cheeks and Pearl is uncharacteristically at a loss for words momentarily. "I uhm...yes well. You're welcome." Amethyst shoots her a winning smile and rolls over onto her back with her hands laced behind her head. "But you really should do this stuff yourself, you're not a child."

The winning smile was dropped and replaced with a forced pout. "That's not very nice P...I like you better when you got your hands in my hair. What do you say? Just like old times." A teasing wink was shot at the end.

"My hands in your hair?"

"Yeah. Don't even tell me you didn't like touching all of this!" Small hands ran through the now smooth locks.

Pearl followed those small hands move through the long almost silvery hair. "I suppose I cannot disagree with you on that note." She reaches forward and gently strokes a patch of familiar tresses. Her blue eyes are half lidded as her hand slowly moves down the locks.

Then a smirk crosses her features and she tugs just enough to jerk her short friend's head slightly. "Hey! Oh you're gonna pay for that!" Thin legs lift the culprit off the ground, moving her from the spot she was sitting.

"Oh no, I thought you enjoyed the way I touched your hair?" Pearl spoke her words with perhaps too much sarcasm.

Amethyst started chasing Pearl around the warp pad until her target opened her door to her room escaping into the temple. It closed just before Amethyst was able to slip through resulting in her smacking into the closed door and falling to the floor as it vanished.

"Oh she's gonna get it. I don't know what yet. But when I think of something, oh it's gonna be awesome!" And just like that, a war had begun. But if the purple girl were to be honest, she loved the times they played like this.


	6. Dad!

"We'll be back soon, no need to worry, okay bye Pearl!" Steven slammed the door closed behind him. Connie was no longer pulling Lapis as the three made their way to the boardwalk. Steven's belly grumbled again. This boy needed a snack, and there was only one doughnut shop that could yield his hunger; and he didn't even know if it was still standing. Steven booked it to the boardwalk as fast as his little legs would take him.

He stood on the wooden flooring that was the boardwalk and looked around. The shops weren't in the best condition, and that was putting it nicely. Sure the beach was cleaned of the ship wreck but none of the crystal gems thought about The Big Donut, Beach Citywalk Fries, or the Funland Arcade. Thankfully the damage wasn't too severe and the towns people were all making an effort to clean up everything. Even Steven's father was helping.

"Dad!" Steven ran up to Greg engulfing the man in a big bear hug. It was the first time he saw his parent since arriving back on Earth.

"Steven! Oh I'm so glad you're okay! I tried to find you and the gems after I saw that the giant hand thing flew away but you guys weren't at the house and I checked everywhere then it crashed down and I went to go back to the beach but there was too much junk laying around from the wreck so I-" He pulled away form his boy to talk to him better and noticed the dark coloring surrounding his right eye. "Wait, what happened to your eye?!" Greg was holding his son by the shoulders getting a good look at his bruised eye with panic.

"My eye is okay I promise, it hardly even bothers me anymore. Ah ha..." The youngest crystal gem member did little to sooth his dad's worries. He would have to tell his parent what happened eventually even if it wouldn't make him happy. So Steven filled his dad in on everything that happened up until taking control of the ship.

"So you guys got the upper hand then crashed the hand and everything was swell." Greg said in response to the new unsettling story. It was meant to be closure to the horrific event but it sounded more like he was reassuring himself. He kept tracing his thoughts in circles thinking of all the ways things could have gone wrong which only caused more anxiety to build up. While zoning out, his eyes wandered from his son to the people standing a few feet away from them only noticing them now. Connie he recognized, and the other he remembered too. The memory of the 'water witch' flowed through his head. "What's she doing here?! I thought you beat all the bad guys already!" Greg grabbed at the hair he still had and yanked in an attempt to calm himself.

Steven ran back to Lapis and rose his arms up in a defensive pose to show she's not the threat. "No no Dad Lapis isn't the bad guy! She was held as a prisoner too. I saved her." Greg stopped pulling at his hair and was left with only a confused look. "After we took control of the ship, I had to go back and help Lapis out of her cell or else she might not have made it. I bubbled us up in my shield so when we hit the beach we were fine. She helped me find the gems with lion and even helped clean up the beach." He looked back to his blue friend and smiled. "She's on our side."

The boy looked back to his father, who's only off putting feature at this point was an eye that was slightly twitching by now. A minute passed by before the older Universe spoke up again. He raises his hand and points to the new ally. "Lapis..." Said gem takes a nervous gulp. "she's on our side now..." Steven, Lapis, and Connie all nod together. "and the other gems are okay with this? Even Garnet?" Another nod from the three. "And you're okay Steven?" Greg raises an eyebrow to his son.

"Yup! Totally fine, hehe." He salutes his dad as affirmation.

Another look to all three in front of him in search of any uncertainty, not that his son or his friend would lie or hide anything from him, and physically relaxes. For real this time. "Well then alright! I guess I'm alright too then." Mr. Universe sends a big smile trusting the crystal gems and his son with everything he was just told. Everyone was alright and that was all that mattered right now.

Everything was well again and little Steven was at peace once more. Until his stomach growled again, this time loud enough for everyone to hear even through the work being done around them.

"Hehe, I almost forgot why we came up here. All that adventuring made me hungry." The boy scratched the back of his head in mild embarrassment. "I was gonna get a doughnut but from the looks of it that's not gonna happen for a while." His expression dropped when he saw the shattered windows of the Big Donut.

The late musician saw the building behind him and frown a bit. Then an idea came to mind. "I know! I'll take us out of town for a bit. We can grab a bite at McDouger's."

Steven's eyes formed stars at the name of his favorite fast food joint, no offense to PeeDee and his families bits of course. His heart will always hold a special spot for their fry bits.

Connie speaks up for the first time since running into her bestfriend's father. "Oh thank you Mr. Universe, but my parents don't like the idea of me eating anything that's cooked with trans fats or is high in cholesterol or is high in sodium or is bad in general."

Steven's dad thinks for a moment before suggesting another option. "Well how's about the wraps or salads they serve there? Those are mostly healthy."

The dark skinned girl put her index finger to her chin as she pondered her options deciding it was a good idea. "Yea okay that sounds fine. I could go for a salad. Mom says I need to eat more greens anyway."

"Awe Connie but the chicken nibblets are the best! You can't just get a salad!" Steven puts on his best puppy eyes and pouts his bottom lip out in a poor attempt to convince his friend to join them.

"Steven I can't just go against my parents rules like that. Besides I read an article on the chicken nibblets and how they're processed and it's hardly chicken by the time they hit the fryer..."

"I still like them." Steven looks to his new friend who hasn't said anything since leaving his home. "Lapis maybe you can try the nibblets when we get there. Or anything else you want. It's all pretty good probably. Even if you wanna salad."

Lapis raises an eyebrow taking in all this new information. " _What's a nibblet? What's a salad?_ " "I guess I'll do what you guys are doing. There's not many options for what I can do anymore anyway so by all means, lead the way."

"Not many options!? Lapis you got it all wrong! Here on Earth there's nothing but options!" *Grumbglurrr*

"Why do you keep doing that?"

"I need food! Now lets go!" Steven grabs Lapis's hand and reaches for Connie's and pulls them in the direction of the all too familiar van parked next to the entrance of Beach City. Lapis needed to learn about everything Earth and she was with the best group of people who could teach her.

 **Hello everyone! I do apologies for the lack of an update for several months there...lots of stuff was going on and the story was the least of my worries. But now that everything has been settled I can start writing again! Woo! Just a few notes before I end this, my writing style might have changed a bit since I last updated but I'll try to keep it consistant for the sake of the story. I also have hella more ideas and twists so stay tuned! And for everyone who commented/followed/favorited my story, again I'm sorry I made you wait so long! A new chapter is coming soon~**


	7. Steven!

Inside the household of the crystal gems, there were currently only three of the residents present at the moment. Amethyst was lounging on the sofa with her feet dangling off the arm rest. Next to her was Garnet leaning back with her arms spread out across the top of the couch and her legs casually crossed. And lastly there was Pearl, pacing back and forth in front of them ranting on about how Lapis Lazuli kidnapped her 'baby'.

"Steven said they would be back soon, and where are they two and a half hours later? Not home! I knew it was only a matter of time before that gem started trouble but to think she would pull something right after we invite her into our home, who does she think she is?! And now our Steven is out there probably held captive and all you want us to do is just sit here and wait?" Pearl stops pacing but only for a moment to stare at the group leader with wide eyes and stressed brows.

Not moving in the slightest, Garnet gives a simple "Yup." completely unfazed by Pearl's worries. "Besides, I highly doubt Lapis would try to steal Steven away from us. She has no where to go and I'm pretty sure you scared her into not trying anything risky."

That last part brought a light blue hue to Pearl's cheeks. She didn't want to instil fear into the blue gem, just a clear and definite warning. "Garnet how can you not at least worry a little bit? It doesn't take nearly three hours to get donuts. Even if Lapis Lazuli didn't kidnap Steven, what if something happened?"

"Then we can deal with it. I'm not seeing anything right now so there's no need to get worked up."

"Yea Pearl, try to loosen up a bit. Maybe they just wanted pizza with their donuts. Or fries. Or pizza topped with donuts and fries. It doesn't have to be a cat or trophy all the time." Amethyst said this with a carefree wave of her hand above her.

The pristine gem narrowed her eyes slightly as her features went from worried to annoyed in an instant. "Catastrophe. And that combination of food is definitely what I would call a 'catastrophe'."

"Hey it's not too bad. I've had it a few times by accident and lemme tell ya, the cheesy fish pizza with the chocolate sprinkles and crispy fries really hits the spot. Especially with a bit of that fire salt, yum!"

"Amethyst please stop that's disgusting..." Pearl was beginning to look sick until curiosity shook her. "...wait. How do you accidentally eat something as atrocious as a spicy fish stew sprinkle crisp pizza?"

Amethyst sat up eager to tell her tale. "See that's actually a funny story. Ah ha like so I was in my room and-"

The door to the beach house opened followed by a second conversation.

"Come on Lapis, it wasn't that bad was it?"

"Steven!" Pearl dashed over to the boy, picked him up and squeezed him in a big bear hug.

"Pearl!" Steven yelped out from the tight grip he was being held in.

"Steven?" Greg walked in after hearing his son yell.

"Greg!" Amethyst shouts and jumps on to Pearl's back for no particular reason.

"Pearl!?" Connie watches as the thin gem is holding up two of their friends without trouble.

"Amethyst!" Pearl shoots back at the shorter gem clutching to her.

"Garnet." Spoken by Garnet herself just to be part of the fiasco. Sometimes she wanted to be silly too.

Lapis is the first to break this streak of name calling. "Is this a regular thing for you guys?" An eye brow raised looking between the six in front of her.

Steven tries to, and successfully, detaches himself from Pearl and climbs down her long torso and legs to face Lapis. "Uh sometimes, things get kinda crazy here. But like a good crazy. The kinda crazy that keeps things interesting." He finishes with a smile.

"I see..."

Amethyst looks up and over Pearl's shoulder and down at Steven. "Hey so what took you guys so long? P here was driving us crazy with her constant nagging."

"I wasn't nagging, I was simply expressing my concern."

"Yea well your 'concern' almost filed a path in the floor from all that expressive pacing." And just like that, her ride tossed her to the floor. Apparently Amethyst just lost her piggy back privileges.

"You didn't try anything that would harm our Steven did you?" Big blue eyes starred down a little blue gem trying to fish out an answer.

The threatening glare wasn't received the way it was intended to because Lapis got a more annoyed look than frightened. She crossed her arms and stood her ground. "He doesn't look harmed does he? Steven's dad bought us..." she paused as a disturbed shiver passed over her body. "...McDouger's."

Steven looked as though he just saw a sick puppy. "Don't tell me you really didn't like it..."

"Steven that can't be edible. How can you get excited over those molded animal by product cubes?"

"They're tasty..."

Mr. Universe makes an attempt to cheer up the mood. "That's okay champ, everyone has their own taste in foods. Just look at Amethyst."

That reminded the purple gem. "Oh right! So my accidental food medley! I was climbing one of my towers of collectables and-"

As Amethyst was telling her story of how she stumbled upon her pizza donut creation, Lapis was left to herself again for a little while. Which also left her to her thoughts for the first time since entering the house again. " _What is going on here? One second I'm practically being interrogated, and the next we're in the middle of story time._ " Listening in on the story for a quick moment she finds out that Amethyst fell and landed mouth first onto a box of half eaten donuts and skidded to a- " _Wow it's really hard to keep up with that one. Why am I so easily distracted? Oh that's right. I don't know what anything is on this planet. Feels great to be on Earth. Forever._ "

"And so there I am in the puddle eating this amazing piece of art and I remember the fire salt! It was only common sense I try it all together. And. It. Was. Amazing. I highly recommend it."

By now everyone was either disgusted, in shock, or confused in Lapis's case. Well everyone except Garnet, who didn't really care it seemed. Or maybe she did. No one ever really knew what she was thinking. One thing was for sure though. Steven was right. This group was crazy interesting, and Lapis didn't see things getting boring any time soon.

 **I hope you guys liked this chapter cuz I had hella fun writing this one! Like its 2am here and I decided to keep writing instead of sleeping like a normal person cuz I preferred to do this instead of dream. And I like my dreams. Anyways! Remember to leave a review, they're always welcomed. Until next time~**


	8. Story Time

Steven and Connie were currently upstairs in the boy's room watching television. Nothing in particular was catching their attention as the channels were being skipped one by one, it was more so just back ground noise to accompany their idling conversations. After what must have been ten minutes of mindless skipping, the screen is left alone to show a rerun of under the knife. Both kids had already seen this scene so they didn't care if they missed some of the words being spoken due to their own interruptions. But a thought did cross a certain brown eyed girl while watching the show.

"Hey Steven, about the gems. Like the ones from space that abducted you guys. Do you think they're coming back?"

Her friend sat there on his bed thinking the question over in his head. The ship was crashed and Jasper was now bubbled and unable to harm anyone. But Peridot was out on the loose and could do...well who knows what. "I'm not sure. But whatever happens, me and the crystal gems will save the day like we always do. And now we have Lapis too! Sure she needs some time to warm up to everyone but I'm sure she will come around eventually."

Connie sat on the floor at the foot of the bed in front of the tv. She hasn't looked away from the screen yet but she was still paying attention to her friend as he reassured her that everything will be fine. But that didn't settle her completely. Connie thought long and hard before speaking her mind. And by long and hard I mean a few seconds and her mind was already made up before the topic was brought up. "I want to help too."

This caught the human gem off a bit as he shifted his wide eyes from the television to his friend in front of him. "You what?"

"You heard me, I want to help you guys! Ya know. If those bad gems come back, I want to be able to help save the world and protect the people I love too."

"Woah woah woah. Connie I don't think that's such a good idea, you could get hurt. Like really bad. Isn't your family all about safety? I don't think I could handle an angry Mrs. Maheswaran..."

"Steven what if you get hurt? Like really badly. You already got a black eye and I just sat here on Earth unaware of anything. I don't want to sit on the sidelines anymore." Connie stood up and turned to face Steven. Her hands were at her sides and balled up. With a closer look you could tell that her cheeks were the tiniest bit flushed too. "If you're going to protect me, then I want to protect you too."

It was Steven's turn to blush now as he stared up at Connie. She was so set on being part of his world, nothing he said or did would make her change her mind. If you can't beat them, join em. "Okay," He jumped up on his bed with a fist in the air. "welcome to the crystal gems!"

Both of the children jumped and cheered for a moment before reality hit them. Connie spoke with a straight determined face. "I need to learn how to fight."

"Right well I'd teach you but I'm still learning too. Hmm...oh I know!"

Pearl was outside their home standing on the deck that lead down to the beach. Her posture was as perfect as ever as she looked over to the shore line. Or rather, who was sitting at the shore line.

Pearl squinted her eyes a little to see if she can find any strange activity in the waters or from her specimen. "What's she doing just sitting there?"

"What are you doing being a creep?"

"Amethyst!" Pearl jumped a little from being startled by her teammate.

"Yo." A big grin was cast over Amethyst's face. It was too easy to sneak up on her. "So are you just gonna watch her all the time?"

"I don't trust her yet. And since we practically live along her domain, it's hard to believe she wont thrash out again." Her light blue eyes were focused on Lapis once again.

Amethyst rested her arms on the railing and laid her head down on top of them to join Pearl in her watch. They stood there for a short while just watching, left to their own thoughts to wander. "Do you really think she would just attack us again?"

"You can never be sure."

Purple eyes peered down at the blue gem on the beach. Lapis was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. She was staring out at the ocean. Just sitting there. Doing nothing. "P...I don't think Lapis will do anything."

"You can never be certain. She could be plotting something as we-"

"Pearl look at her." Lapis rested her head on top of her knees, hiding her

face from the world. "She's not in 'attack mode'. It looks more like she's in 'sad and lonely puppy' mode."

Pearl looked down at Amethyst listening to her choice of adjectives, then looked back at Lapis. She must have been sitting there for over an hour. Maybe...

"Pearl!" Steven throws the door open and almost runs into the tall gem with Connie right behind him just as excited. "Pearl! You need to teach Connie how to fight!"

"What? Where is this coming from? Absolutely not."

Connie steps in front of her friend and looks up to Pearl with pleading eyes. "Please Pearl, I want to help in some way. Even if just a little so I can protect my family or Steven. I don't want to sit on the side anymore. I can't just watch Steven risk his life for everyone without doing my part too. Please..."

For as tactical Pearl could be, she still hasn't found a defense against the dreaded puppy eyes. "Oh fine." She says with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Yes!" Both Steven and Connie jump with a fist to the sky.

"But only if you are to follow my instructions. Swords are not toys, and they most certainly are not to be handled the way they are portrayed in silly movies."

"Aw, no boomerang blade?"

"No boomerang blade. We already discussed how unrealistic that 'attack' is Steven."

The trio walked off toward the warp pad to begin their lessons, Amethyst stayed behind on the deck. She would watch them later when things got interesting. Day one is always so boring anyways.

Besides, the purple gem had her own quest to begin. She left her place at the railing to go down the steps that led to the shore. Someone needed to talk to the newbie on the beach or else she was just going to drive herself deeper into the dark hole of depression that was clouding her mind.

With not so quiet foot steps, as to not scare her target, Amethyst approached Lapis and stood next to her. She didn't even bother waiting for a possible conversation to spring up. Instead she just went for the kill, it was more her style. "What's got you so bummed pal?" Lapis just sat there looking out to the ocean still as ever. Sure it was a dumb question but it was better than nothing. "Okay, well what are you thinkin of?"

Lapis lowered her head to her knees keeping her eyes forward. She didn't want to talk to anyone, she didn't want to be stuck on Earth, she didn't want to be confronted about being grumpy. It should have been obvious why she was 'bummed'. And it absolutely was clear as day.

"Alright. How's about this, I talk and throw down some ideas I got and if you get ticked then just shout out something and lemme hear it. It's better than sitting there letting yourself boil in bad feelings. Sound good?"

An eyebrow raise and a side glance was granted from the gem in question. That was good enough to continue.

"I get that we kept you from Homeworld for thousands of years but it was for the good of our cause. And that's probably not what you wanna hear but it's the honest truth. We didn't know who you were and it wasn't the best of times to let just any gem wander the Earth. Rose, Pearl and Garnet all agreed that it was for the best." Amethyst lifted her arms and rested her hands behind her head. She was caught in the sight of the crashing waves. "I get why you're angry, I would be too. Being trapped all alone for all that time...I know how that feels too. So you know."

Lapis wanted to thrash out and prove how wrong the crystal gem was. She wanted to scream out at her, tell her she's wrong. That she has no idea what alone is. But taking in consideration of Amethyst's attempt at creating a civil bond between them she took the higher road. "How?"

It was simple, but enough to put a sad grin on purple lips. "I was made here on Earth. I was supposed to be something bad but lucky me, I was born a few hundred years late! Yea, so I skipped the war- do you know what the war was?"

"That's the reason I was on my way to this miserable planet."

"Uh..." This new piece of information was...unpredicted and threw Amethyst off a bit, but she decided to get back to that later. Didn't want to bring up possibly negative vibes when she just got a reaction from the blue girl. "...right. So everything was already done by the time I came outta the ground. No war, no gems, just me. I was alone for I don't know how long but long enough for me to make games outta rocks, I even had one specifically for sitting! Talk about boring haha."

A small chuckle escaped thin blue lips, "Rocks? Really?"

"Yea! Hey that was fun back in the day. Rocks and boulders. The raddest of the rad."

"What's 'rad'?"

"It's like cool. Only cooler than cool. It's rad."

"Rad..." Lapis spoke the word once more, this time to remember the word. She stored it away in her mental dictionary for later. "So if you were alone for so long, how did you end up with the crystal gems?"

"See I was chillin with my rock friends and Rose found me. Her and the group brought me back here and boom bing bam, I'm a crystal gem too!." Short thick legs lower themselves down to the sandy ground to sit besides thin blue ones. Mind as well kick back while the convo flowed on.

Lapis looked at Amethyst with disbelief. "They took you in? Just like that? Impossible. You said it yourself, any random gem could be a risk."

"Yea yea, but the middle part that explains all that is a long story. I'll save that for another time. Can't tell you everything just yet Ms. Risky."

"...It's Lapis."

"Right..." Amethyst took it upon herself to get Lapis caught up on modern slang and lingo. It shouldn't be too hard for the Earth gem.

They sat there next to each other having nothing left to say at the moment as they looked out at the smooth water of the ocean. At some point they had managed to calm down. Coincidence? Maybe.

 **Hello everyone! I was planning on getting my OC in on this chapter but it didn't happen as you can see. Sometimes things just take a different route. Also I didn't feel like proof reading this one cuz it's 2am. Again. Oops. But it should still be at least decent I hope ^-^' anyways! Please do leave a comment or review and follow and favorite or whatever you'd like to do if you enjoyed the story so far! And thank you to everyone who has up to this point. You are all very wonderful to me thank you so much! Until next time~**


	9. The Chest

In the sky arena is where the training trio could be found. Well Steven wasn't really involved at the moment, he was more of the support and audience. No the real action was between Pearl and Connie.

It was only a week ago that the kids convinced the samurai to give lessons on fighting. Connie was a natural it turns out, she took on Halo Pearl level one and two with ease so it was only fair to give the girl a bit of a challenge. It goes without saying Pearl went easy on her.

Week two came and went just as successful. Pearl expanded Connie's knowledge of different swords and the proper techniques used for each. Holo Pearl leveled at three and four were defeated as well during this week but not without putting force on young hands. Connie needed bandages to help blisters turn to callous.

It was on week three that Steven started to worry about his friend. Not so much about her safety, Pearl was more than careful when Connie entered a duel with her or her clones. The worry came from the pep talks, the motives given to keep Connie going in her training.

What had started as a way to protect and defend has transformed into complete disregard for oneself to ensure the objective is met. Keep Steven safe at all costs. That is what worried Steven. Thankfully the end of training for the day had come.

Connie walked over to Steven and knelt in front of him to bow, to which he stood where he was awkwardly. "Connie...what are you doing? Training is over for the day. You don't have to pretend being a knight any more."

"Oh but Steven, a knight is never off duty. Evil never rests and so I shall remain at your service until the end of time." Connie looked up to her friend a goofy smile on her face. "Or until I need to go home for dinner hehe."

"Riiight. Ha ha ah..."

Yep, this definitely isn't what he wanted. Pearl accidentally turned Connie into a full time soldier. Like a robot bent on keeping him safe. Then it hit him. Connie was turning into a robot soldier.

"Come on Steven!"

Connie and Pearl were already at the warp pad ready to go. He rushed over and warped them back home. Pearl congratulated Connie once more and retired to her room for the evening and Connie said her goodbye to Steven and left to go back to her own home. They left too soon for the boys taste leaving him in a less than energetic mood.

On the couch laid Amethyst on her side with her head propped up on her hand. "Yo Stevo! How was the nerd games today?"

"Eh not so good..." He walked over to sit next to her on the couch.

"Connie get hurt? She looked pretty okay to me."

Steven slid down, now slouching and looking away from Amethyst. "Well Connie is doing really really good, Pearl says she's making fast progress." He waited a few seconds but the purple gem next to him didn't say anything so in a hushed voice he whispers. "This is the part you ask 'then what's the matter little man?'"

"Haha okay, what's the matter little man?" Amethyst played along and let him vent his issue.

And boy did he vent. He started from the beginning of how the training went from teaching proper form to being a real knight. He managed to keep the story of the past few weeks to only fifteen minutes. By the time he was done talking he had slouched his way almost to the point of falling off the sofa.

From across the room, Lapis exited the bathroom. Upon returning to the sitting area she greeted the boy. "Oh hi Steven." Taking note of his posture she felt compelled to ask what the problem was but Amethyst jumped in and spoke for her.

"I know! Lapis and I will go with you guys tomorrow! Yea it'll be awesome, we can keep the mood light in case P tries to get super serious like she always does."

Lapis wasn't sure she was fond of the offer. But heck, it was better than sitting around starring at nothing waiting for someone to pester her. "Where am I going?"

"The sky arena! We're gonna watch Pearl give fight lessons to Connie."

"Fight lessons? I don't need lessons on how to fight, if you haven't noticed." She briefly remembered their little fight before she left Earth.

"Don't worry you wont be fighting, just watching with us." Steven reassures the blue girl.

"I'm not sure I wanna do that either." Lapis mutters. Again, it was better than being bored.

"Great! Just one more thing." Steven looks up at the water gem. "What were you doing in the bathroom?"

"Amethyst told me there was a never ending flow of water in there." She narrows her eyes at the crystal gem. "I looked every where. I found nothing."

Amethyst couldn't hold the snickering back, it was too easy really. "Hey she didn't want my help."

"I think I can spot an endless amount of water if there was such a thing."

Steven lead Lapis to the bathroom again. "Lapis, this is a sink. And this is a bath. These twisty things on top, these are called faucets. They make the water come out." He turned the knobs on the faucet for the sink and let water rush from the spout. Steven saved the day, and Lapis found her favorite room in the house. Despite the odor.

The next morning Steven was up and ready for Connie's practice. Lapis was sitting on the couch waiting to go. Amethyst was only just leaving her room to join the two, a big yawn escaping her gaping mouth.

"Sup guys?"

Steven jumps down the steps from his room two at a time. "Hi Amethyst, ready to watch two of our favorite people battle it out to ensure the safety of the world?"

"Don't I look ready?"

"Yes." He says with a grin. Then she throws herself face down onto the couch next to Lapis. "Maybe not."

There was no time to be lazy because Connie was bursting through the door, eager to begin another days training. "Hey guys, ready Steven?"

"Hey Connie, yea I'm ready! Or should I say, we're ready." He gestures to the two gems on the couch. "Amethyst and Lapis are gonna come with to cheer you on. If you don't mind that is."

"Of course that's fine, the extra set of eyes can help point out anything I might be lacking." Connie was giggling at this but Steven was feeling his stomach twist a little.

"Right...well lets get going I guess." Steven and Connie stood on the warp pad and looked back to the others.

Lapis was pulling, or at least trying to pull Amethyst off the couch. It was almost as if her purple friend was glued to the thing. "Amethyst get off this couch. You got me into this and you are NOT making me go alone!"

"Chill Risky, I was just gettin' a few more minutes of shut eye. I'm comin." The sleepy gem got up and pulled Lapis to the warp pad with her arm around thin shoulders.

Connie leaned over to her friend so she could whisper to him. "Hey, Amethyst and Lapis sure got close over the past couple weeks." She couldn't help a little grin forming on her lips.

In a hushed voice, Steven smiles back at her. "Yea I know, it's great isn't it?" Connie hums back to him in agreement just before the two in question get to them.

With everyone ready to go, they warped over to the sky arena. When the flash of light died down and the four walked up the steps leading to a large opening. On the other side they could see that Pearl was already there, of course being the punctual type. The tall gem was setting up obstacles that would be used in a later duel after warming up.

The two kids and Amethyst started making their way to the arena when after only a few steps down they realize they aren't being followed. Lapis was standing at the top step looking down at Pearl. She didn't feel threatened by the gem, no she learned already that Pearl wasn't going act unless provoked. The thing that was holding back the water gem was the discomforting atmosphere that always seemed to follow the two. Lapis liked the distance. At least between her and the crystal gem.

"Aren't you gonna come down Lapis?" Steven asked from where he was.

"I think I'm fine right here. I don't want to be in the way." She spoke in a soft casual tone, hoping she wouldn't be dragged down to ground level.

Amethyst takes a step back toward the top and props a foot up. "Come on weirdo, you didn't drag me off the couch to stand there. We gotta go watch Connie kick Pearl's butt!"

Connie shuffles where she stands a bit, "Guys I need to get ready, I'm already behind my normal schedule."

"Okay I'll race you down then! I'll be back after I let Pearl know you guys are gonna watch. Alright Connie, on my mark." Steven looked to see his friend was already half way down to the ground. "Hey wait up!"

Pearl noticed the new company instantly, not that it was necessarily bad company. She just preferred undivided attention during...well most everything. Then she saw a speck of blue appear at the top of the arenas steps, knowing it could only be Lapis.

Pearl stood up straight with one hand on her hip and the other by her brow as she peered at the foreign gem. "Oh, why are you here?" she said less than thrilled.

"Pearl, hey!" Steven shouts to said gem as he and Connie ran down the flight of stairs. Connie was first to get to her teachers side.

"Hi Pearl. Sorry I'm running behind today, I had some chores to do before I was allowed to come over." Connie dug around in her duffel bag and pulled out her hand wraps. Her small hands were working fast to put the protective binding around her wrists, knuckles, and fingers. Once her hands were properly wrapped, Connie began her routine stretches making sure she wont be pulling any muscles. Pulled muscles meant injury, and injury meant no practice.

Steven was already by Pearl's side, literally. He was currently laying his weight onto his caretaker, hugging her hip to remain standing. "Hey Pearl. We made it." he said between breaths. As it turns out, the race down the arena took more out of him than he thought it would.

The tall gem let out a soft chuckle and wrapped in arm around Steven in a half hug. "Yes you did. And I see you brought guests to today's lesson."

"Oh yea, Lapis and Amethyst are gonna sit in on this one if that's okay?"

Pearl looks up to the stands and sees that Lapis and Amethyst are still at the higher levels. Lapis was standing near the entrance with Amethyst a few steps down standing with her hands behind her head. She was saying something but Pearl couldn't hear her and she was facing away from her so she couldn't even attempt to read her friend's lips.

Thin lips flattened slightly as blue eyes continued to stare at the couple in the distance. Not that they were a couple. A couple of gems who just so happen to be spending a frequent amount of time together without a significant purpose. ' _It can't be..._ ' Pearl thought. ' _Amethyst can't possibly be subject to an emotional attachment with Lapis Lazuli. Not that it would matter. Nor would I hold an opinion on the matter._ ' Amethyst tilts her head back in laughter and Lapis wears a quirky smile while failing to hold back her own laughs. A part of Pearl sinks. Or maybe its pulled tight. She isn't quite sure. But a plan she's not even sure of crosses her mind and drags a challenging smirk to her lips.

"Sooo...?" Steven was waiting on a response to his question that someone has not yet answered.

Pale cheeks reveal a shade of blue almost too light to see. "I don't see why it would be a problem." Actually she could think of a few reasons. "As long as Connie's focus isn't lost due to the side line distractions, visitors are welcomed."

"Great, I'll go let them know they can come down now." Steven detached himself from Pearls long legs and sprinted his way back up the stairs that caused him fatigue, completely forgetting his previous exhaustion. Only when he got back to the two did he feel the wear on his legs, bringing him to his knees to weakly crawl up the last few steps.

"Jeez Steven, you gotta work out." Strong purple hands easily lift the boy up on top of broad shoulders.

"Yea. Maybe just. A little." He rested his head on top of Amethyst's, letting his curly black hair mesh with her wavy white. "Pearl says you can come down now."

Lapis leans against the entrance wall trying to muster up the will to do the unwanted. Amethyst saw the stubborn girl and pouted a bit in thought. "Yo Steve-o do me a solid and save us some seats. We'll catch up." She removed him from her shoulder and sets him down next to her gently.

"Okay sounds like a plan." Steven looked back down to his friend and teacher. All the way at the bottom. He began his third trip over these concrete torture devices.

Thus leaving the two gems to be alone again. For no particular reason, they both waited until the boy was out of ear shot again before they spoke again.

Lapis started, "I'm really not looking forward to getting peered at for who knows how long."

"Okay so lets do something else." Amethyst walked past the blue gem.

"Where are you going?"

"Follow me and find out."

After only a moment of consideration, the offer was accepted and Lapis trailed behind her friend. They walked to the edge of the sky arena and paused. Amethyst looked over and around the edge looking for somewhere to continue their travels. She settled on some broken wall that seemed to be caught in the arena's gravitational pull. White boots launched her over to the hovering platform. She turned back to Lapis expecting her to jump also, which she did. They made their way down a level and found an entrance to the bottom floor of the arena.

Little did they know, they were being followed. Steven was almost to the bottom of the stairs when Connie and Pearl began their lesson. Excited, he turned around to see if the others were on their way. When he saw they weren't and they were missing he surveyed his surroundings and spotted them moving down the floating rubble. Curiosity got the best of him as it usually does, and he followed them. His little legs were worn out but he had to follow them. They were supposed to keep his Connie from getting sucked into the role of being a knight!

Navy eyes took in the surrounding architecture. The sparring area above them was heavily damaged, not to mention the arena was now a floating island, but most everything under the field seemed to be intact. Lapis took in her surroundings with only one question in mind. "What is this?"

The shorter gem spun around with her arms out presenting the room to her friend. "This magnificent place, Lapis, is where we keep our cool doodads."

A decorative mirror catches the attention of the former prisoner. She picks up the mirror and looks at her reflection. "Doodads?" After mentally reassuring herself this is not the dreaded mirror that kept her trapped, she genuinely inspected the spiraled handle and vine patterns engraved in the boarder.

"Yea like stuff, junk really. But the cool junk." Not finding anything worth laying on, Amethyst takes a seat on the floor and lays back. "Go ahead and look around. Maybe you'll see something really neat."

And so that's what she did. And if she were to be honest, a lot of the 'doodads' she came across were pretty interesting. Her favorite so far was a statue of an animal she hadn't yet learned of. She believed it was one of the Earths more peaceful, yet complicated water creatures. Living in the ocean, but still needing oxygen to survive. ' _Living in a habitat that doesn't support your basic needs doesn't seem very practical, Earth makes it's own rules I guess. What were these things called again? Talhans? Dopkins? Tolmins? Uhg whatever._ '

Lapis went to set the statue down on top of a desk, when upon further observation was actually a large chest. It was a mossy green color with intricate gold trim along the edges and studded gold corners. It was pretty plain looking overall. But one very important detail shook Lapis enough to make her lose her grip and drop the beloved art piece. It hit the ground, immediately shattering. This caught the attention of her purple pal.

Amethyst rushed over to the sound to see what happened. "Hey are you okay?" she saw broken ceramics scattered around blue feet. "If you didn't like it, you could have just ignored it haha." The crystal gem noticed she was the only one laughing and slowed down to an awkward silence. Lapis still had her back turned and was still staring at the chest. Amethyst didn't know what had gotten into her, and quite frankly had a bad feeling about this. Not knowing what to say, she settles for a cautious, "Lapis?"

Said gem clenches her fists tight, her shoulders tense up and her gem starts to glow. "Why did you bring me here?" Her words are forced and harsh, although not yelled.

"You didn't wanna watch Pearl and-"

"Stop lying!" Lapis's water wings shot out of her gem, giving her a larger more threatened appearance. Her hands were gripping onto the edge of the chest, her eyes never leaving the center piece.

Amethyst took a step towards Lapis, wondering if this was such a good idea anymore. "Lapis what's going on? What's got you all on edge? Look if you wanna go back to the temple we can do that, I didn't plan on staying anyw-"

"Lapis? Amethyst?" Steven interrupts as he just now catches up to the two, having no idea what he just walked into. "What are you guys doing down here? What is down here?"

The seemingly unstable gem is the first to answer him. "This is a prison!"

"What?!" Both Steven and Amethyst questioned her at the same time.

The water gem moved aside and gestured to a rectangular stone that sat where a lock should be on the chest. The stone was mostly black with several white specks trailed throughout it. It was smooth and shiny like glass and radiated something that only a gem would recognize as one of their own. A gem was trapped in the chest, the same way Lapis was trapped in the mirror. Amethyst's chest tightened at the sight of the dormant gem. She remembered.

Lapis didn't want to, no. She couldn't waste her time talking to these two anymore. So much time had been wasted and now...now was no time for stalling. She latched her fingers onto any corner of the gem she could find grip to and pulled. She pulled and pulled but it didn't budge. Steven finally caught up, somewhat, to the situation and decided to help another gem in need of saving. So he gabbed Lapis around her waste and pulled as well.

Amethyst didn't know what to do, but she figured this was gonna happen sooner or later. So she joined in and summoned her whip. With a flick of her wrist, the whip found its way around the chest without covering the gem to pull in the opposite direction. With all three of them working together to free the stuck gem, eventually they were successful.

A flash of light blinded the three for a moment before it dimmed to reveal the gem hovering ten feet above the ground. It was taking its default form as they all stared. Steven's eyes were full of wonder and amazement. Amethyst's eyes were full of regret and worry. Lapis held hopeful tears in hers. The gem took its form and before them stood a gem two inches shorter than Pearl herself. Her skin was the lightest shade of gray it almost looked white. She had toned legs and broad shoulders. Her chest was proud and her waist was fair. Solid arms were hidden under loose sleeves for sure, but slim none the less. Short snow white colored hair was messily tossed around on top her head. And when she finally looked up, you could see how soft her features are. And when she opened her deep green eyes you could see pain and betrayal coating her glare. More specifically, her glare at Amethyst.

"Amethyst..." The mysterious new gem speaks with malice in her throat. The purple gem takes a few steps back out of caution, too frightened to do anything else. Steven has never seen the carefree gem so intimidated before. He had no idea who this was and what she was capable of. So he watched. He watched as one of his family members backed away from the gem she just helped to set free. And he had no idea why.

The new gem was about to approach Amethyst too, until Lapis intervened. "Snow..." she whispered softly. Her voice weak and wavering but still heard by all present.

She stopped in her tracks. Vicious glare dropped, now replaced with wide eyes and a slacked jaw. Only her torso pivots as her feet are glued to the ground beneath her boots. And there she saw, only four feet next to her, "Lapis."

A single tear rolls down her cheek. Then in a leap and a half, her and Lapis are engulfed in a bone crushing embrace. No words are spoken as the two hold each other. Tears are streaming down the stranger's face and Lapis is openly crying into her shoulder. "I thought...and you weren't...I didn't..." Thoughts and emotions were coming and going as fast as they were living.

As if this moment wasn't already filled with confusion and panic, a couple more guests arrive at the scene. Pearl and Connie storm into the arena's basement, swords ready and senses peaked from the mid training adrenaline. "Steven are you okay?" Connie rushes to her liege, to make sure he is safe. He never answers despite being fine. Being left without an answer, the girl looks at the new gem. "Who's that?" Again, Steven didn't answer. Connie looked at Amethyst in shock, then to Pearl who was also in shock.

In fact Pearl was frozen. The sword she held in her hand shook as her nerves lost control of her cool. Her eyes were wide and quivering. She kept mouthing silent unreadable words until one was audibly spoken. "Obsidian."

The emotion filled embrace between the chest gem and mirror gem was quickly replaced with a defensive and protective stance. A double edged sword was summoned from the rectangular gem sitting in the center of her torso. In one swift flawless motion Lapis was positioned behind her and Pearl was left defenseless as the sword she was previously holding was now across the room lost in artifacts.

The thin crystal gem could feel the cold touch of the sharp blade press against her neck. Everyone was watching, they all witnessed it with their own eyes and still, no one could believe it. In one move, Pearl was effortlessly defeated.


End file.
